


You Yourself Are Nothing So Divine

by TheGreatCatsby



Series: What Dreams May Come [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dreams, FrostIron - Freeform, pretty one-sided frostiron actually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-25
Updated: 2013-09-12
Packaged: 2017-12-24 16:19:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/942013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGreatCatsby/pseuds/TheGreatCatsby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony used to have dreams about Loki, but they stopped. When Loki appears on Earth, there are a lot of questions Tony needs answered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation of the story "Undiscovered Country." It might be helpful to read that first but it isn't strictly necessary. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> Title is a lyric from the song "You Know My Name" which is from the film "Casino Royale."

“I never thought I’d see you again.” 

The words left Tony’s mouth before he even knew where he was, but as soon as he said them everything fell into place. He was lying on a rock. It felt like a rock, hard, digging into his back and unforgiving. And cold. The blood in his veins felt sluggish, like it was freezing. 

Someone sat next to him, peering down at his face. 

Tony blinked and the image cleared. 

Loki. 

He looked blurry, a jumble of dark hair and pale skin and green eyes. He leaned over Tony and said, “Why are you here?” and his voice sounded like it had been torn out and then cobbled back together. But Tony couldn’t worry because it was just so cold and he felt sleepy. He wanted to sleep. He closed his eyes. 

“Where did you go?” he slurred. 

“You left,” Loki whispered, “and they took me.” 

Something in the way his voice shook made Tony open his eyes. But all he could see above him was a dark sky full of unfamiliar stars framed by the peaks of jagged rocks. “Loki,” he said. 

No answer. 

“Loki,” he repeated, and tried to sit up. But his body remained frozen. He couldn’t move. And the rock became so cold that it burned. 

“Loki!” Tony screamed, but his voice echoed and no one answered, and the burning became blinding, and 

He sat up gasping in his own bed, shivering despite the warm blanket pooled in his lap. Next to him Pepper slept, undisturbed. 

Tony took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes. 

The dream had been horrible, a return to nightmares that Tony hoped he would never have again. 

But Loki was there. Loki was back. 

Tony lay down and stared at the alarm clock blinking at him from the darkness and wondered whether the dream belonged to him or to Loki. He wasn’t sure which answer, if any, was better. 

**

“I am the most unlucky person in the entire universe,” Clint said. 

Tony walked into the kitchen and found Clint leaning against the counter. Steve and Bruce were sitting, and Natasha stood eating her breakfast. 

“You are not,” she said. 

“Have you looked at my life?” Clint asked, staring at her. 

Natasha gave him a look and he turned to Tony instead. “I’m right. I know I’m right.” 

“I have no idea,” Tony said, striding up to the counter, leaning past Bruce and snatching an apple from the fruit bowl in front of him. “Any word from Thor?” Thor had gone to Asgard a few weeks ago and hadn’t reappeared since. 

“Nope,” said Natasha. “It isn’t unusual. Why?” She eyed him in a way that should have been casual but, knowing Natasha, was probably part of some bigger plan. 

Tony bit a chunk out of his apple and shook his head. He wasn’t about to tell her about his dreams. He hadn’t even told Thor, specifically. 

“He’s probably been crowned king and forgot about us little people,” Clint muttered. “Bastard.” 

“You seem angry today,” Bruce remarked. “Something wrong?” 

“Fury’s sending me on a mission to Columbia,” Clint said. “I hate Columbia. I stick out like a sore thumb and everyone tries to shoot me. Even the people I’m not trying to kill.”

“It’s like you’re a spy or something,” Tony said. Clint glared at him. 

“Columbia’s the only mission that’s gone worse than Budapest,” Clint said. 

“Budapest wasn’t that bad,” Natasha said. 

“What happened in Budapest?” Steve asked. 

Clint and Natasha exchanged glances and answered, simultaneously, “Nothing.” 

“And Fury calls you the best liars,” Tony said, taking another generous bite of his apple. “Honestly, I’d give my left arm for a mission.” 

Bruce choked on his tea. 

“What?” Tony asked. “Nothing’s happened in weeks. This keeps up and I’ll have another 42 suits to blow up for Pepper.” 

“Isn’t this calm good for your relationship?” Bruce asked. 

Tony considered his apple. “I can’t possibly answer that question at the moment.” 

Natasha smirked. Steve looked worried. “Tony,” he said, “Pepper’s-“

“The best thing that’s ever happened to me, I know,” Tony finished. “I can’t help how I feel. It’s not her. It’s just what I do. I need things.” 

“Distractions,” Natasha said. 

“Not that,” Tony said. 

“I’m with Tony,” Clint said. “I’d rather have Avengers shit to do than Fury’s missions. Honestly-“

“Sir,” Jarvis interrupted. 

Tony didn’t bother to hide his smirk as both Steve and Clint jerked their eyes upwards. Neither seemed capable of breaking the habit. “What up?” 

“I am commencing total shutdown of Stark Tower,” Jarvis told him. “I have detected an enemy on your roof. SHIELD has been contacted, and the suit is ready should you desire to use it.” 

As soon as Jarvis stopped speaking, an alarm sounded and the sound of Stark Tower’s doorways and windows being deadlocked could be heard. Natasha pulled out a gun from a place Tony didn’t really want to think about, and Clint reached under the counter to grab his bow and arrows. Steve and Bruce both looked at a loss. 

“I don’t bring my weapons to breakfast, either,” Tony said. “Jarvis, I’ll deal with it. Clint, Nat, backup?” 

“Sure,” Clint said. Natasha nodded. 

“Jarvis, get me the suit,” Tony continued. “Steve and Bruce—you’re on standby.” 

The two men nodded and Steve stood up. He usually commanded the team, but Tony had been faster and in Stark Tower, he usually felt more in charge than the soldier. 

The Iron Man suit parts began flying through the tower towards Tony, a cool trick that he’d kept from his previous suits. The armor clung to his body and expanded, and by the time he, Natasha, and Clint reached the roof access elevator, the suit was combat ready. 

“Override security,” Tony said. “Let us up. Is the enemy doing anything?” 

The elevator jerked to life and Jarvis answered, “No, sir. He is on the ground.” 

“And who is he?” Tony asked. 

A pause. “Sir,” Jarvis said, and then suddenly he switched subjects. “SHIELD has arrived and are surrounding the tower.” 

“Great,” Tony muttered. The elevator doors opened, and Tony, Natasha, and Clint took a last bit of stairs up to a door, which Tony forced open to the roof. 

Last time he had been here, Dr. Selvig had built a device for the Tesseract to open a portal to another part of space. Now, the roof was empty of any devices. Helicopters surrounded the tower, and Tony’s eyes flew to the single figure on the floor. He stopped in his tracks and felt Natasha and Clint brush past him, weapons raised. 

“Sir,” Jarvis intoned. 

The figure on the ground looked up with his piercing green eyes and Tony couldn’t look away. 

Loki. 

He was too thin, too pale, dressed in torn clothing and bleeding all over the ground. His hair hung in lanky strands from his head. He looked like he’d been to hell and then had taken part of it with him into the land of the living. He’d looked much healthier, if a little tired, in Tony’s dreams from a while ago. 

But, Tony remembered, in the most recent of his dreams Loki had been a blur. 

Then Clint slammed into Loki, tearing his gaze away and pinning him to the ground. 

Loki snarled and attempted to fight, twisting and turning in Clint’s grip. Tony watched with a child-like fascination as the two struggled and Natasha aimed her gun at Loki. 

“Don’t shoot,” Tony said. 

Natasha looked up at him. 

“He can handle it,” Tony explained. 

Clint managed to get Loki pinned down enough to cuff him. Loki hissed a few words at him and Clint snapped, “Fat chance.” 

It was only then that Tony became aware of Jarvis repeating “Sir? Sir?” in his ear. 

“Yeah, Jarv?” 

“Director Fury wishes to speak to you. He wants to take the prisoner.” 

“The prisoner,” Tony repeated. He still hadn’t looked away from Loki, who had gone completely still under Clint. Then, “Yeah, let them do that. But I’m coming.” 

“Stark.” That was Fury’s voice over the radio. “Is there any reason why you want to come?” 

Tony was curious, but the reason he gave Fury was, “I need to know why he appeared at my tower.” 

“Fine,” Fury said, “but don’t pull anything stupid.” One of the helicopters hovered close enough to the tower that several agents jumped out on ropes and slid down to the roof, where they grabbed Loki from Clint. They clipped themselves to the ropes, Natasha and Clint included, and were pulled back up. Tony followed with his suit until they were all safely within the belly of the helicopter. 

Tony looked anywhere but Loki. He instead looked out the window and watched his tower shrink into the distance, becoming just another skyscraper in the crowded New York City skyline. 

After a few moments he asked, “Where are we going?” 

“SHIELD’s base in the Catskills,” one of the agents responded. 

“Well damn,” Tony muttered. He hadn’t expected the base to be so far away from the city. 

“Fury wants to keep the action as far away from the city as possible,” the agent said. “We do have a base in New York City.” 

“Oh.” Tony figured it was a good idea, considering what had happened on Loki’s last visit. “Good.” 

He might have imagined Loki staring at him. It felt like he was, but he couldn’t be sure and he didn’t want to look. Giving away any link between them would make everyone else suspicious, and he couldn’t afford that. His initial reaction already had Natasha looking askance at him. 

The helicopter quickly ate through the urban areas and everything became green forests with a few smaller towns sprinkled through the trees. 

When they landed, the SHIELD agents took hold of Loki by the arms and led him into the base. Clint, Natasha, and Tony followed, but not before Clint stepped in front of Tony and said, “See? I told you I have the shittiest luck.” 

Tony couldn’t exactly argue with him. 

They followed the agents inside, Tony curious about what exactly they planned to do with Asgard’s most wanted criminal. As it turned out, the answer was simple; they took him to an underground cell and tossed him inside. The walls were made of glass. If Loki wanted to hide he couldn’t. 

That didn’t mean he couldn’t get out. 

The glass slid shut as soon as the agents left the cell and Loki slammed himself against the closing glass. Tony, Clint, and Natasha stood off to the side, watching him. Clint’s jaw tightened.

The sound of footsteps echoed down the corridor and Fury emerged from one of the doors leading into the cell chamber. He stepped in front of the glass, in front of Loki, and considered him. 

“Why haven’t you left?” he asked. 

It was a good question. The last time Loki had allowed himself to be captured as part of a bigger plan. SHIELD had no anti-magic defenses, yet, and Loki was very good at using his magic to escape supposedly impenetrable forces. 

Loki clenched his jaw. 

“Sir,” Jarvis intoned, “current energy readings from Loki indicate a much lower level of radiation than previous readings.” 

Fury and the others turned to glance at Tony, having heard Jarvis’ announcement. 

“But the energy’s still there?” 

“In extremely small quantities,” Jarvis said. 

“Well then.” Tony took a few steps closer to the cell and Loki focused on him instead. “Looks like you don’t have enough magic to get out of here.” 

“I will,” Loki hissed, “and then what will you do?” 

“Beat your ass, like we did last time,” Fury said. “But we don’t want to do that. We need information.” 

“Like, how did you get on top of my tower?” Tony asked. 

Loki narrowed his eyes. “I took a step,” he said. 

“That doesn’t tell us anything,” Natasha said, folding her arms over her chest. “I’m not sure if you noticed, but we’re not afraid to play rough to get what we want.” 

“I’m sure many would relish the opportunity,” Loki said, turning his gaze on Clint. Clint turned and walked out of the room. 

Natasha hardly spared him a glance. “Do you want that to happen?” 

Loki tugged at the chains connecting his cuffed wrists, pulling them taut. “I want nothing.” 

“How’d you get out of Asgard?” Fury asked. 

Loki licked his lips, tongue darting out to wet the chapped skin. He tugged on his chains again and murmured, “They took me.” 

The world spun for a moment and Tony took a step backwards. “You left, and they took me,” Loki had said. 

He hadn’t known what it meant then, either. 

“Who took you?” Natasha asked. 

Loki snapped his chains again. 

Tony could see the metal start to cut into thin, pale wrists. “Loki,” he said, and everyone turned to look at him. He swallowed. “Stop that. You’re hurting yourself.” 

“This?” Loki snapped the chains again, and again, the metal digging into his skin and blood welling up. “Then take them off.” 

“We can’t do that,” Fury said. “You’re here for the long haul: either you cooperate or you rot in this miserable cell.” 

“Oh?” Loki choked out a laugh. “I had options?” He had stopped pulling on the chains and was now digging the nails of his left hand into the wrist of his right arm, attempting to dislodge the metal cuff. 

“Why are you here?” Natasha asked. 

Loki focused completely on his task, nails scrambling at his skin, blood welling up and staining his wrist, starting to run down the inside of his arm. 

“Why are you here?” Natasha repeated. 

“No,” Loki hissed, gripping his bloodied wrist. 

“How did you get here?” Tony asked. His stomach churned at the sight of new blood. 

Loki looked up, hand coming away from his wrist to press against the glass, leaving a bloody print. He didn’t look at all there; it was like he had to struggle to focus on Tony’s face, and when he did, he looked shocked. 

“I fell,” he said, and then collapsed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!

“Bull-shit,” Clint yelled, slamming a fist down on the conference room table. “I didn’t sign up to babysit Loki. We call Asgard, get Thor’s ass down here and send Loki back where he came from.” 

“He escaped Asgard,” Fury said. The Avengers, Steve and Bruce via video link, were gathered in the conference room for a debriefing. “They’ve shown us they can’t handle him.” 

“And we can?” Clint asked, incredulous. “Or don’t you remember what happened last time you tried to capture him?” 

“I remember,” Fury said, leveling Clint with a steely look. 

“His magic’s depleted,” Natasha pointed out. “That gives us time to come up with a way of repressing it. Take away Loki’s magic and he’s much easier to handle.” 

“He’s weak,” Fury added. “Asgard let him escape but they weren’t easy on him. That helps. Physically he’s not much of a threat, yet.” 

“And his mind’s still a bag of cats,” Clint said. “Big deal. What if it’s an act? An illusion? He’s good at that.” 

“Tony and I can figure out things on the magic end,” Bruce said. “Give us a few days and a lot of coffee. Jarvis has readings of Loki’s magic use, right?” 

Tony heard what Bruce said and murmured, “Yeah,” but his thoughts were elsewhere. 

Natasha noticed. “Tony.” 

“He said they took him,” Tony said, looking at her. “Not that he escaped.” 

“Loki’s been known to lie,” Clint said. “It’s kind of his thing.” 

“Yeah, but why that lie?” Tony asked. “I mean, he’s smart enough to know that we know that ideally, he would have escaped from Asgard under his own power. Right? That would make him look strong. He doesn’t like to look weak. He wants to be intimidating to us. So why would he tell us that someone else took him?” 

“He wants to be intimidating when it suits him,” Natasha said. “If looking weak works to his advantage, he’ll use it.” 

Like last time. But something about the whole thing sat ill with Tony. He couldn’t tell them about his dreams, but he could voice his thoughts. “What if he was taken?” 

“So what?” Fury asked. 

“No, Tony has a point,” Steve said. “That means that either Loki has enemies, or that we have enemies besides Loki who wanted him free. And if Loki has enemies, then that doesn’t automatically make them our friends. And if we have enemies besides Loki who are working with him, then shouldn’t we know who they are?” 

“If Loki was taken,” Fury said, “and if he’s telling the truth, and if he’s not putting on a show, all of which are very unlikely-“

“Either way,” Natasha said, “we’d want to know who they are. What we’re dealing with.” 

“It could be the Chitauri,” Steve suggested. 

“I destroyed them,” Tony said. 

“Maybe not all of them,” Natasha said. 

“So, what, we have another war on our hands?” Clint asked. “Then I’m going to get drunk. Who’s with me?” 

“I am,” Tony said. He needed, desperately, to clear his head. 

Fury held up a hand. “No one’s getting drunk. Barton, I need you here. If Loki tries to escape we have to stop him. Stark, we need a device that can suppress magic. And Romanov, we need information. Got that?” 

“Yes, dad,” Tony muttered. 

Within a few minutes, Tony was flying to Stark tower. He was glad that Jarvis had mapped out a route for him, because he was too distracted to take complete control of the flight himself. There were too many things to consider. What if Loki was telling the truth? Who had taken him from his cell? Why wasn’t Asgard responding? Where was Thor? What if the Chituari were behind this? What if they weren’t? What had they done to Loki to make him so weak? 

Would there be a repeat of the New York invasion?

Tony hoped not. The nightmares had started to fade. 

And a small part of him wondered whether or not this could have been prevented. If he and Loki had really been talking in their dreams, he’d essentially blocked Loki out by taking sleeping pills. It was a decision, at the time, that he’d thought was for the best, but what if it had pushed Loki over the edge? 

Did the dreams mean anything at all? 

Tony landed at Stark Tower a few minutes later, glad to finally get out of his suit and to have a distraction. He met Bruce in the lab and said, “We’re not going to sleep for a few days so get comfortable. I’ve had Jarvis order coffee.” 

“They deliver coffee?” Bruce asked. 

“They do now.” Tony pulled up several files and graphs. “This is Loki’s magic,” he said, pointing to a series of energy readings taken from when Loki had been in Stark Tower. 

Bruce looked at the data hovering in the air. “It’s energy,” he said. “But where’s the source?” 

“Good question,” Tony said. “Is the source Loki? Or is the source something else? Can Loki tap into a source somewhere in nature like, say, electricity in the air? Jarvis, were there any anomalies in the atmosphere aside from the magic Loki was doing at the time he did…magic?” And it felt weird to say that. As a rule, Tony tended to disregard magic as a thing. And now he was knee deep in magic, trying to stop it. 

“No, sir,” Jarvis answered, “nothing out of the ordinary outside of Loki’s immediate manipulations.” 

“Manipulation,” Tony said. Then he looked at Bruce. “That’s an interesting word. I’ve never heard magic called manipulation before.” 

Bruce shrugged. “You programmed him like that.” 

“Or maybe Jarvis has picked up on something I haven’t,” Tony said. “And he just doesn’t know what it is yet.” 

“It is possible, sir,” Jarvis said. “I have little experience with magic.” 

“This bears further consideration,” Tony said, pulling up one of the graphs. “If Loki’s manipulating the universe in ways we humans can’t, then what allows him to?” 

“We can look at his physiology against Thor’s,” Bruce said. 

“Dr. Banner, I would advise against that,” Jarvis intoned. “SHIELD profiles on both Mr. Odinson and Loki show that their physiology is different.” 

“Like, different as in Loki’s adopted or-?” 

“Different as in different species, sir,” Jarvis said. 

“Fuck,” Tony hissed. “How different?” 

“It is possible that Loki is a mix of species,” Jarvis said. “The data is inconclusive.” 

Bruce looked pale. Tony took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay. We can deal with that. We’ll work with what we know and hopefully Natasha gets some info out of Loki before he becomes all Harry Potter on us.” 

“Right,” Bruce said. 

They wouldn’t be sleeping for a long time.

**  
Natasha paced in front of Loki’s cell and Loki did nothing. 

It bothered her, to a certain extent, that Loki was so quiet. 

She had promised to try to get information out of Loki, but it wasn’t going to be easy. Last time she had used half-truths and carefully veiled lies to get to him. This time Loki would see right through her, if his mind was still intact. 

She was beginning to doubt that. 

Loki had turned towards her and was following her movements. Back-and-forth, back-and-forth. A muscle twitched in his jaw. He seemed to find the constant movement irritating. 

Natasha did not stop pacing. 

After a few moments of this she said, “How did you escape?” 

Loki remained silent. 

“We’ve bet all our money on magic. Fury thought the scepter might be how you did half of what you did, but that’s not true, is it?” She stopped for a moment to consider Loki, whose expression remained blank. “But your magic worked even without the scepter. It’s just a conduit, am I right?” 

“You have no understanding of magic,” Loki said, sounding like it hurt his throat to talk. 

“Thor’s coming back soon,” Natasha said. “He has a better understanding of magic than we do, even if it isn’t as good as yours.” She started up her pacing again. “We can give you up to him, or you can stay here. Which do you prefer?” 

“I have a choice,” Loki said. 

“Do you want one?” Natasha asked. 

Loki licked his lips. “Neither choice is one I would willingly choose,” he said after a moment, “so it is no choice at all. Not mine.” 

Natasha raised an eyebrow. “You’re saying that you don’t care?” 

“They are all prisons.” 

Natasha stopped in front of the center of the cell. “What do you want?” 

Loki didn’t break eye contact and Natasha suppressed the chill that wanted to crawl up her body and take hold. His gaze was so empty. If she had to describe the emotion she got from his eyes, she could only come up with one word: void. She had only seen it a handful of times, and not with SHIELD. In the dark days before SHIELD. 

“Who took you?” she asked, when no answer seemed forthcoming. 

No answer. 

Natasha struggled not to look away first. She would not yield. “I’ve seen men broken before,” she said. “You look just like them. I’ve seen that look in the mirror. I’ve caused it.”

“Red,” Loki said. 

Natasha gave him a sharp nod. “Ever since I was young.”

“The monster under the bed,” Loki murmured. 

Natasha’s eyes were burning from concentrating on Loki for so long. Part of her wanted to run far away, to forget about this, so that some other agent could attempt to pry open Loki’s mind and gain information at the cost of their own emotional integrity. Natasha had played this game far too often and winning never felt like winning. 

“I prefer snake in the garden, myself,” she said, allowing her lips to quirk up. “Spies are a bit more subtle than monsters. We operate with more finesse.” 

“How many do you kill each year?” Loki asked. 

It was a strange question. Unnerving. No one had ever really asked. “I don’t count,” Natasha said. 

“The bodies pile up until they become impossible to recognize,” Loki said. 

Natasha swallowed. “You said you fell.” 

“I never stopped.” Now, Loki turned away from her. One hand clutched the thin cloth that covered his body. 

**  
One twenty-four hour period later and Tony hadn’t heard anything from SHIELD. Several agents had, apparently, questioned Loki over the course of his imprisonment with little information to show for it. As always, Tony was left on his own. 

Bruce said, “I think Loki has more energy to spare than humans. Like, we have a certain amount of energy that we can use for ourselves. What if he can use it for things besides himself?” 

“Like magic,” Tony said. He’d meant to be sarcastic but it came out sounding hopeful because he was almost out of ideas and the coffee was wearing off for the fourth time. 

Thus, project Five Hour De-Energy was born. 

“Basically,” Tony said, “we need to find a way to prevent him from using energy. Like—make him really tired. Weak.” 

“Drugs,” Bruce said. “Or poison.” 

“Or a device that prevents things from radiating outside of his body,” Tony added. “If Loki works like a radioactive thing.” 

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Bruce muttered. 

A nuclear bomb could have gone off outside and neither Bruce nor Tony would have noticed. 

“We need Thor,” Tony said at one point. He didn’t mean it. Thor knew fuck-all about science and barely more about magic. 

While he worked, Tony thought about the less magical part of Loki: his mind. He wondered how Loki had taken his sudden absence, and whether it was the cause of his diminished state or just something that happened at the same time. He wondered if there were hard feelings. 

“He’s going to kill me,” he accidentally said out loud. 

Bruce turned to him with a frown. “You never did anything to him.” 

Tony sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. 

“You didn’t do anything to him,” Bruce repeated. 

Tony swallowed. Telling Bruce would mean confessing to having the enemy in his mind, or having himself in the enemy’s mind. Either way, it wasn’t a good thing. It meant he was that fancy word that Clint and Natasha liked to use: compromised. 

Bruce was still staring at him. 

“What if I told you I’m compromised?” Tony asked. 

Bruce continued to stare at him. 

“Not that I am,” Tony continued, “but you know. Sometimes things happen. Sometimes people get inside your head and don’t let go. Things get strange and you start to look at certain people who might be enemies in a different sort of way.” 

“Is this about the nightmares you had after New York?” Bruce asked. 

Tony thought about it. “You could say that.” 

Bruce frowned. “You’re hiding something.” 

“You could say that.” 

“Tony,” Bruce said. 

“I don’t want to sound like a complete idiot,” Tony said, “but some of those nightmares featured Loki. And weren’t exactly nightmares. And we might have talked.” 

“You dreamed about Loki,” Bruce said. 

“You could say that.” 

“Why are you telling me this?” 

Tony exhaled. “Because I don’t think they were dreams.” 

Bruce held up his hands and took a deep breath. “Tony, look. I need to process this, slowly. How about this? You tell me about it once we’ve figured out how to contain Loki’s magic. That’s more important. We have to prioritize.” 

“Prioritize,” Tony repeated. “Right. Please tell me you don’t think I’m an idiot. Or evil.” 

“No,” Bruce said, “I don’t. But I’d rather not have the Other Guy make an appearance after whatever you say makes me even angrier at Loki. I think that would slow down our progress.” 

“Fair point,” Tony said. “So what do you wanna go for: injection, pills, or wearable device?” 

**

Clint caught Natasha in the hallway and pulled her aside. 

“I want to talk to him,” he said. 

Natasha held his gaze, giving nothing away. After a moment she said, “You’re compromised.” 

Clint jerked away from her. “I’m not. I mean, yeah, I’d like to put an arrow through his head more than the average person, but he doesn’t control me. Not anymore. I thought you knew that.” 

“I do,” Natasha said, inclining her head, “but your feelings-“

“Are an asset,” Clint said. “Loki knows me. He’ll think he has the advantage. Might get him to be a little more open, thinking he can get to me.” 

“And can he?” Natasha asked. 

“No.” Clint said. Natasha continued to look at him. “No,” he repeated, with more force. 

“You need closure,” Natasha said. 

“Okay, yeah, that’s true,” Clint said, “but Stark needs this info fast, no one else has gotten anything, and I think I have the best chance of getting it.” 

Natasha looked away from him. “One chance, Clint.” 

Clint grinned. “Thanks.” He hurried off towards the cell, not giving himself time to think. He hadn’t slept the two nights that Loki had been imprisoned, and he’d had all that time to cultivate his determination to go down to that cell. He was only glad that he managed to run into Natasha before her second interrogation shift. 

He hoped Fury wouldn’t be too pissed. 

He hoped he could get some information. 

And if he pissed Loki off as well in the process, nobody could really blame him. 

Loki sat on the single cot in his cell, staring at nothing. He looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks, let alone the past two nights. Bandages, stained red, had been wrapped around his wrists to cushion them from the cuffs and from Loki’s own nails. Clint walked straight up to the glass and waited. 

Loki seemed lost to his own thoughts. He didn’t move, didn’t even turn around to acknowledge Clint. 

Clint cleared his throat. 

Loki blinked, then shuddered. Slowly, he turned around and focused on Clint. Familiarity flickered behind his blank eyes, but nothing more. 

“I hate you,” Clint said. It wasn’t the best introduction, but he needed to say it, get it off his chest. Say the words he had wanted to say when in Loki’s service but couldn’t because his mind belonged to someone else. 

Loki’s lips twitched. 

“You aren’t even sorry, are you?” Clint asked. 

“They felt no remorse,” Loki said. “Why should I?” 

Clint frowned. “Who are they?” 

“They live in the void,” Loki said. “They brought me here.” 

“The Chitauri?” 

“No.” Loki laughed. It grated on Clint’s nerves. “The Chitauri are mindless beasts wielded as weapons by those with far greater power and ambition.” 

“Like you,” Clint said. “Hate to break it to you, but you’re not much in the way of power. We’ve dealt with far worse.” 

Loki’s tongue darted out to wet his lips. 

“The point is,” Clint continued, “you’re weak. You’re only a fraction of what you used to be, and even that’s being generous.”

Loki considered him for a moment. “Magic,” he said, suddenly, “is using personal energy to manipulate the fabric of the universe, to bend it to your will.” 

Clint froze. “What?” 

“Control time,” Loki continued, “control matter, control minds, control souls. Control everything if you can harness the energy properly.” 

Clint swallowed. 

“Why are you telling me this?” 

“I refuse to be anyone’s prisoner,” Loki growled, standing. “I refuse to play this game.”

“You think I’m gonna let you go just because you gave me what I wanted?” Clint asked. “Fat chance.” 

“No,” Loki said, pausing inches before the glass barrier. “I gave you what you wanted as consolation.” 

“For what?” Clint asked. His hand clenched the gun holstered near his waist and suddenly he wished Natasha had come with him. 

“This,” Loki breathed, and his breath frosted the glass. Which was weird, because the air in Loki’s cell wasn’t cold, and even if it was, his breath would be warm-

Loki’s hands moved and something appeared between them, suddenly, bright and blue and glowing, and before Clint could think about whether or not it was the Tesseract (it looked too big) or something else, the glass blasted outwards shattering in a roar of wind, and Clint fell to the ground. 

The cold air bit into his skin. The floor iced over and Clint yelped in shock as he lifted one of his hands off the ground to prevent it from freezing. As he regained some of his focus he saw that ice coated everything in front of him, including the cell. 

Which was open. And empty. Shards of glass lay scattered upon the ground, glittering. 

Several alarms had sounded. In his ear he could hear Fury yelling, “Barton, what was that? Where is the prisoner?” 

Clint scrambled to his feet and turned around, searching, but he was alone. 

“Gone,” he gasped. “He escaped.” 

He stared at the ice for a moment longer. “Inform Stark,” he said. “I’ll get the jet.” 

“Hopefully Loki won’t target them,” Natasha’s voice came through the earpiece, “but just in case, I’ll meet you on the runway in five.” 

Clint took one last look around the destroyed room and then sprinted out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tony and Bruce don't science hard enough in time and everyone regrets it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sick and unable to really write new things. So editing a chapter of this story and posting it seemed like a good idea. 
> 
> (Let me know if it wasn't a good idea. There may have been cold medicine involved.)

“Loki’s escaped.” 

Tony swallowed. He and Bruce hadn’t finished-hadn’t even built a prototype. They were working with theory and now Loki was out and a threat. 

“Fuck,” he hissed. 

Next to him, Bruce put his head in his hands. 

“Barton and Romanov are on their way,” Fury continued. “We don’t think Loki will target you, but it’s possible he might and we need to be prepared. He seems attracted to your tower.” 

“Yay me,” Tony murmured. “Jarvis, lockdown.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Only let Clint and Natasha through. And Pepper, if she’s out of the building.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

Tony turned to Bruce. “This is my fault.” 

“No.” Bruce sighed. “We thought it would take Loki a lot longer to get his strength back.” 

“They heal faster, those aliens,” Tony said, shaking his head. “Now what? We have World War III on our hands.” 

“Sir, Agents Barton and Romanov have arrived,” Jarvis announced. 

“Thanks.” Tony and Bruce made their way up to the balcony of Stark tower, meeting Steve on the way there. Clint and Natasha had landed and were walking briskly towards them. Clint looked as though he’d been through a windstorm. 

“Tony,” he said, wide-eyed, “he told me how magic works.” 

Tony and Bruce looked at each other before Tony turned back to Clint. “I’m sorry—what? I thought he escaped.” 

“He did,” Clint said. “He pulled out this blue box thingy—it looked like the Tesseract but not the Tesseract—and everything turned to ice. But before that he told me how magic works. He said—“

“It doesn’t matter,” Natasha interrupted. “Tony, Jarvis has access to SHIELD’s cameras, yes?” 

“All of them,” Tony said, distractedly. He wanted to know what Loki had told Clint—to see how close he had gotten—but knew better than to interrupt Natasha. 

“Good. Get Jarvis to analyze the tapes from Loki’s cell,” she said. “We have to find out what weapon he was using and whether or not it was the Tesseract.” 

“It wasn’t the Tesseract,” Clint said. “I’m pretty sure it was bigger.” 

“Jarvis, you got that?” Tony asked. 

“Yes, sir,” Jarvis said. “Analyzing now.” 

“If Loki does have the Tesseract,” Bruce said, “that means that he might’ve used it against Thor.” 

“Or all of Asgard,” Steve said. “Has anyone heard from Thor?” 

“No,” Tony said, “but if that is the Tesseract or something similar, then maybe that’s how he got here.” He turned to Bruce. “Lab?” 

“Lab,” Bruce agreed. 

They started to walk away when Natasha said, “Tony. I’d be careful. We all need to be extremely alert.” 

“Will do,” Tony said. “Jarvis is on top form.” 

Just before he and Bruce got into the elevator, he heard Clint mutter, “Why didn’t he kill me?” 

The elevator doors opened and Tony and Bruce stepped inside, Tony’s mind jump-started into overdrive. 

There was too much to think about and not enough time to piece it all together. 

**

Night fell and Tony sat in his workshop alone. 

It wasn’t uncommon for Tony to be in his workshop at night, but he wasn’t working. He was tossing a smiley-face stress-ball up and down, thinking. 

Loki could have killed Clint when he escaped but he hadn’t. Why? Loki had something that looked like the Tesseract and had used it to freeze his cell and break free. What was it? Loki said he’d been taken by someone. 

Loki had specified that Tony had left him. 

Tony didn’t want to feel guilty about that because it was Loki, and he shouldn’t feel guilty for Loki because Loki had tried to take over the world. 

But he did. 

Tony never felt how he was supposed to. 

He’d been sitting there for hours before he asked, “Jarvis, what time is it?” 

A cold voice answered, “Three.” 

Tony let the ball he’d just tossed in the air drop to the floor. That wasn’t Jarvis. He spun around in his chair. 

Loki stood too close for comfort, too close for comfort being in the workshop, in Stark Tower. He wore his leathers now, but he still looked ill. 

Tony scrambled to his feet. “Any second now the Avengers’ll be on your ass and you’ll be back in a cell. And this time, we’ll keep you there.” His voice didn’t shake and he was grateful. 

Loki took a step closer. “Such harsh words from a man who has welcomed me into his mind.” 

“I didn’t,” Tony said. “I didn’t even know you could do that. You pulled me in first.” Then, “Jarvis. Help. Now.” 

“No,” Loki growled, advancing. “You allowed me into your dreams, and then you vanished. Why?” 

“I’m not supposed to let the enemy in my head,” Tony said. “We have a fancy word for it: it’s called being compromised. What’s it matter to you? I never got the impression you liked being there.” 

Loki lunged forward and smashed into Tony, taking them both down. Tony crashed into one of his work desks, Loki pinning him there. The edge dug into his back and he cried out. 

Loki tightened his grip, one hand around Tony’s throat. “You left me to the abyss,” he snarled, “and then they came-“

“Good,” Tony snapped. Then, “They?” 

“-and there was nothing, no escape-“

“They?” Tony choked. 

Loki loosened his grip. He was shaking. 

“Who are they?” 

Loki swallowed. “They,” and cut himself off. 

Tony stared at Loki. “What happened?” 

Loki focused again. “Why did you leave?” 

“No, that’s not what we’re talking about,” Tony said. 

Loki shook him. “Why did you leave?” 

“Why do you care?” Tony yelled. He heard banging on the door to the workshop and prayed that somebody would get it open in time. 

Loki didn’t spare a glance back towards the door. He leaned closer, and Tony noticed strange white marks on his lips, and a scar slashing Loki’s throat vertically, and he couldn’t look away. 

“Tell me,” Loki hissed. There was something desperate in his eyes and Tony found himself drawn in. 

“I don’t know,” Tony said, “I really don’t. I mean it’s weird to have the enemy in your head and maybe I called you there but I couldn’t keep you there because it was wrong. You know it was wrong. Fraternizing with the enemy.” A pause. “Who took you?” 

Loki shuddered. “The Chitauri. The Other. Thanos. Names, Stark, all names. Thor. Odin. The void.” 

Tony remembered. He didn’t fall. “You let go,” he couldn’t stop himself from saying. 

Loki snarled, “Not this time. They let me go. Tossed me into the abyss.” 

“Loki-“

“They say that the void is nothing, but they are wrong. There is too much, far too much-“

“Loki!” The banging stopped. Tony hoped that didn’t mean his teammates had given up on him. They wouldn’t give up on him. They couldn’t. 

“Death is truly nothing,” Loki continued, his eyes becoming glassy. “Death, peace, darkness. Rest.” 

Tony swallowed and tried to move, but Loki kept him pinned. “What do you want from me?” 

Loki closed his eyes. When he opened them again, Tony caught a flash on uncertainty and fear. Loki stared at him.

“What-?” Tony started

The door burst open in a shower of sparks and Loki let go of Tony, turned towards the source of the noise, and then disappeared. 

Tony picked himself up off the desk and felt hands pulling him, heard Steve and Bruce asking “Are you okay? What happened?” and, distantly, heard Natasha and Clint saying things into their earpieces. 

“What happened to Jarvis?” Tony asked. 

“Sir, I malfunctioned,” Jarvis said, and Tony felt dizzy with relief at hearing his voice. “My programming was overridden.” 

“He escaped!” Clint cried from the door. “Fuck!”

“Pepper alright?” Tony asked. 

“Miss Potts is currently in Washington D.C.” 

“Right.” Tony sighed and felt like a terrible boyfriend for forgetting. “Business trip. Well, tell her what happened and that I’m fine before she finds out from someone else.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Tony.” Natasha made her way over to him. “Did he say anything? What happened?” 

“He broke into my tower,” Tony said, “pinned me to the desk and then,” and then what? Asked why Tony had left his mind to its own devices? 

Natasha arched an eyebrow. “What?” 

“He sounded not all there,” Tony told her. Half-truth. He could work with those. “I don’t know what he wanted.” Also a half-truth. Sort of. 

“If he has a plan we aren’t seeing it,” Clint said. “But he’s targeting us.” 

“That’s twice he’s left an Avenger alive after a confrontation,” Natasha murmured. They all looked at her. 

“He shouldn’t be,” Bruce said after a moment. “If this is revenge Clint and Tony would be dead. Or badly injured.” 

“So again,” Clint said, “what’s his play?” 

“Maybe he doesn’t have one,” Tony said. “Maybe he escaped from who knows where and got captured by SHIELD and escaped again and now he doesn’t know what to do with it?” And really, where could Loki go after what he’d done? Asgard clearly didn’t want him, and Earth was hardly a better option. 

Steve sighed. “We need Thor.” 

“He told me about magic,” Clint said. “Tony, if you can suppress his magic we can capture him for good.” 

“What did he tell you?” 

“He said magic is using personal energy to manipulate the fabric of the universe,” Clint said. “I think that means he’s his own energy source, but he kind of jump-starts something that can play around with the universe. You know?” 

“Close enough to our pet-theory about magic, right Bruce?” 

Bruce nodded. 

“We can work with it,” Tony said, with more confidence than he felt. “We have been working on it, and we’ve been on the right track.” 

“The other problem,” Natasha said, “is that Jarvis can be overridden. We need more SHIELD agents here.” 

“Look,” Tony said, “if Loki’s going to kill us he will. People can be overridden just as easily, if not more easily, than a computer. Jarvis is doing the best he can but if Loki’s still got his magic there’s really nothing we can do.” 

Natasha nodded, grudgingly. 

“We’ll keep watch,” Clint said. “Fury’s gonna have a fit.” 

“For once I’d like to join him,” Tony muttered. 

Later that evening Pepper called, frantic with worry. “I swear, Tony, if things aren’t okay I’ll take the first plane out-“

“They’re fine,” Tony said. “And besides, it’s safer for you there than it is for you here. I won’t be able to concentrate if I’m worrying about Loki finding you here.” 

“Let him find me,” Pepper said. “He won’t survive the encounter.” 

“You haven’t got super-strength anymore, Pep,” Tony said, but he was smiling.

“Why is Loki after you?” Pepper asked. “Why not Fury, or Thor?”

“Good question,” Tony said, smile slipping away. “No idea. He’s even more of a bag of cats than last time.”

“He’s unpredictable,” Pepper said. “Has Thor shown up?” 

“Not yet,” Tony said. “But he will, I’m sure. Whether he can fix the problem is another matter entirely. Where Thor is concerned, Loki tends to go ballistic. Bruce and I are a very tentative Plan A—we’re working on suppressing his magic.” 

“I didn’t know you were an expert on magic.” 

“I’m not,” Tony admitted, exhaling a shaking breath. “What’s bothering us, ironically, is that Loki hasn’t killed anyone yet. He’s had more than enough chances.” 

“Tony,” Pepper sighed. “Just be thankful that he hasn’t killed you.” 

“I’m worried,” Tony said. “What if he’s planning something else? Something worse?” A revenge worse than death for the injury Tony had given him when he’d blocked Loki from his mind. 

“Then you have to work faster,” Pepper told him. “Find a way to contain him, find out his motives. And don’t take risks, Tony. Don’t confront him alone.” 

Tony didn’t tell her that he had no choice in the matter. He only said, “You got it. Anyway, I should get back to Bruce. You know, to figure out Plan A and stuff.” 

“Keep me updated.” 

“I wouldn’t do anything else.” Tony hung up and made his way to the lab, where Bruce was pouring over the notes Tony had been taking on various routes they could pursue using some form of magic suppressant. 

“The best bet we have would be keeping him constantly drugged, draining his energy,” Bruce said. “I have a few compounds that would do the trick—very potent, long-lasting. I may have, uh, tried them out on myself.” He rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. 

“Well then, we try them on Loki. Injections—I can place a few in my suit for the initial injection, like weapons,” Tony said. “We’ll have to constantly supply more drugs.” 

“Considering that building technology to suppress Loki’s magic might be harder, it’s the best option,” Bruce said. “I have a horrible feeling that Asgard’s method of suppressing magic includes more magic.” 

Tony collapsed into one of the chairs and sighed. “Stupid magic. It isn’t even real.” 

Bruce raised an eyebrow at him. 

“I mean, obviously, Loki’s using it,” Tony clarified, “but there’s gotta be science behind it. And maybe humans can’t use it but that doesn’t mean we can’t stop it, right? Or understand it? There has to be a process that can be explained behind everything that Loki does that’s considered magic, right?” 

“In theory,” Bruce said. “But we’re looking for quick solutions. Fury can mount an interrogation on Loki once we’ve captured him but for now, we go ahead with this.” 

“Great,” Tony said. “You have all the necessary components?” 

“Yup.” Bruce began typing on one of the keyboards. Tony watched, not really paying attention. His mind was still buzzing. 

“Bruce,” he said after a few minutes. “We’ve been talking a lot about motive.” 

Bruce stopped typing and turned to him. 

“Motive,” Tony continued, “like maybe Loki was inside my head and I kicked him out and he was upset and-“

“Wait,” Bruce said, holding up a hand. “You’re telling me Loki actually was inside your head?” 

“Inside my dreams,” Tony said, “which probably weren’t dreams come to think of it. He says I pulled him there and it distracted him from his imprisonment. But it’s kind of weird, having the enemy inside your head, right? So I took sleeping pills and that blocked him out. And then I guess he got taken—that’s what he’s been saying, anyway. And he’s angry because he didn’t have a distraction.” 

Bruce took this all in, breathing slowly. After a moment he said, “You weren’t obligated to distract him.” 

“Maybe I gave him the wrong impression,” Tony said, “like when you lead someone on. I didn’t know I was doing it, but I mean, if I really was pulling Loki into my head in my sleep then maybe he thought I liked it, and then he got confused when I stopped.” 

“Maybe,” Bruce said. “Or maybe that’s not important.” 

Tony stared at him. “Not important? If I told Fury or Clint or Natasha they’d have my ass in a cell faster than you could Hulk out! They’d say I was compromised, mind controlled, under the influence of Loki’s magic. That I could turn at any moment.” He paused. “You don’t think that, do you?” 

Bruce shook his head. “Not every invasion of the mind is mind control. And you kicked him out.” 

“Yeah,” Tony said. He took a deep breath. “Would it be weird if I tried to bring him back in?” 

Bruce twisted his hands. “Um, I don’t know. Did you?” 

“I was curious,” Tony said. “I guess I just, I don’t know, wanted to find out more. I had to push, but by then it was too late. I stopped taking the pills, thinking that Loki’d be able to access my mind, but he was gone.” 

“I’m not an expert in mind control,” Bruce started, and Tony had to hold back a nervous laugh, “but in my inexpert opinion, you’ve been under your own control. I mean, you letting someone else control you? Never.” He grinned and Tony laughed. 

“True,” he said. “There’s, um, another thing.” 

Bruce sat up straighter. 

“Loki mentioned some names when he was taken. The Other. Thanos.” 

“I haven’t heard those,” Bruce said. “Maybe he worked with them when he worked with the Chitauri? Thor was convinced Loki wasn’t the highest in command, after all.” 

“But we never saw them,” Tony said. “The question is, are they a threat?” 

“One step at a time,” Bruce said. “We deal with Loki first, and once we’ve got him in custody then we find out whether there’s something else. Or someone else.” 

Tony nodded. Suddenly he felt very, very tired. “We haven’t slept,” he said. “I can have Jarvis run some virtual tests on your chemical compounds until morning. Sound good?” 

Bruce gave Tony an equally tired smile. “Sounds excellent.” 

After making sure Jarvis was running the appropriate tests, and after putting in an additional command for Jarvis to search for references to ‘the Other’ and ‘Thanos,’ just in case. He doubted there would be results. 

And then he fell into a deep sleep, more exhausted than he had been in a long time.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor arrives, but things don't necessarily improve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just saying, whenever I think about Thor and Loki's relationship my heart kind of shatters.

The next day Tony and Bruce woke up to Jarvis’ test results: Bruce’s chemical compound looked good to go, and they immediately proceeded to try and synthesize the chemicals into something injectable. A few hours later, a knock on the door brought them back to their senses. 

Steve opened the door and poked his head in. “You might want to come upstairs,” he said. “Thor’s here. He’s been debriefed so you can talk to him.” 

Tony jumped up and strode to the door, then past Steve. Thor had been the missing piece of the puzzle all this time. Thor and Asgard. 

Thor stood near the window when Tony entered the room. He turned around with a smile, but Tony cut him off before he could say anything. “What the hell is going on? And don’t give me some bullshit answer, I want to know why Asgard let their prisoner run loose, why they dropped the ball when they were supposed to be responsible for the guy that nearly destroyed our planet. Got any answers?” 

Thor’s smile faded. “I am truly sorry,” he said.

“Sorry’s not gonna cut it,” Tony snapped. “Your brother broke into my tower. He could’ve killed me!” 

“He did not kill you,” Thor said. “That makes me believe there is still hope.” 

“Hope?” Tony repeated. 

Thor nodded. “Loki did not escape from his cell in Asgard. He was taken by the Chitauri. At first, we assumed that they had taken him because he was their leader. Later, we learned that they had brought Loki to their leader to punish him.” 

“For what?” Tony asked. 

“For failing in his mission to take over Midgard. For failing to bring them the Tesseract. For the destruction of the Chitauri army,” Thor answered. 

Tony swallowed. “What, um, what was the punishment?” 

“Torture,” Thor said, grimacing. “I did not wish to hear details-“

“And how did he get here?” Tony asked, because he did not wish to hear details, either. 

“He managed to escape,” Thor said. “I know not how, but I do know that Loki is capable of walking between the worlds. Perhaps he managed to pull together enough magic to bring himself here. It is possible that the Tesseract’s portal left a link with Loki to this tower.” 

“Huh.” Tony didn’t like the idea of Loki having a link to his tower. But he didn’t like the idea of torture, either. “What happens now?” 

Thor sighed. “There are two options: Loki can face the justice of Midgard. Or, I shall return him to Asgard.” 

“To rot in prison,” Tony said. 

Thor frowned. 

“Right.” Tony began pacing. “I hate to say this, Thor, but you all really fucked up. I don’t even know where to begin. Why the fuck did Loki end up working with the Chitauri in the first place? Why’s he angry at you?” 

Thor looked away. “It is a long tale, some of which is not known to me. He changed greatly in the void, but it is possible he changed long before he fell.” 

“The void,” Tony repeated. 

“Yes.” Thor put his head in his hands, scrubbing at his face as if trying to get the image of Loki falling out of his head. “Loki told me that I tossed him into the void. This isn’t true, but sometimes I feel as if I have.” 

“You didn’t,” Tony said. “Loki made his own choices.” 

“I drove him to those choices,” Thor argued. 

“Maybe.” Tony turned to Thor. “There’s no easy choices. Loki isn’t gonna want to be a prisoner, and if he was tortured, I don’t blame him. But he’s a threat. We can’t let him walk free.” 

“Loki has always been difficult,” Thor said. “I will find him. We will speak.” 

“He might not talk to you,” Tony said. “Honestly, I’m not sure he’s all there.” 

“He spoke to you, did he not?” 

“Sort of.” Tony couldn’t bring himself to look at Thor. He heard footsteps, then felt Thor’s large hand on his shoulder, anchoring him to the spot. 

“Tony,” Thor said, “you have shared dreams with my brother.” 

Tony hesitated. 

“You asked me whether or not Loki could walk through dreams,” Thor continued. “You are not one to ask idle questions.”

“Yes,” Tony admitted. “I don’t know why he would. Trust me. Let me into his dreams, or let himself into mine.”

“You are a stranger who is very much like him,” Thor told him. “You offer Loki the ability to speak to someone removed from those who have known him all his life, yet you are similar enough that you may understand him.” 

“I don’t understand him,” Tony snapped. “He attacked us. I don’t think I’m the ideal candidate for Loki.”

“You were the best option,” Thor suggested. 

And wasn’t that sad, when Tony Stark was the best someone could come up with when they needed help. He was Loki’s best bet, of all people. 

“You know exactly how to flatter me, Thor,” Tony said. 

“I will try to find Loki,” Thor said, pulling away. “I’m sorry.” 

He made to leave, but Tony said, “Wait.” Thor stopped and turned back to him and Tony asked, “Do you know anything about these names: Thanos? The Other? Loki mentioned them.” 

Thor frowned. “I have never heard of the Other,” he said. “Thanos sounds…perhaps it is a name lost to history, last mentioned a long time ago and forgotten since. I could not tell you. Do you think they were responsible for Loki’s punishment?” 

“Loki said they were,” Tony said. 

“What else did he tell you?” Thor asked, eyes lighting up. 

“Not much that was useful, to be honest,” Tony said. “You have more information than I do at this rate.” He thought over what Thor had told him. “Like, you said Loki had changed before he fell.” 

“Well, yes,” Thor said. “You know I was banished to Midgard, and in that time Loki found out about his true parentage. It…disturbed him. He was king at the time-“

“Loki was king?” Tony repeated. 

“Yes,” Thor said. 

“All that rightful king stuff—I thought he was lying!” 

“He doesn’t always lie,” Thor pointed out. 

Tony massaged his temples, still not quite ready to believe that Loki had actually been king. He could see Loki as a dictator who overthrew someone, maybe, but as a rightful king? Not really. 

“Does this change anything?” Thor asked. 

“Not really,” Tony admitted, even though his mind seemed to be stuck on that one single fact. “I still don’t know what to do. What the right thing to do with Loki is, I mean.” 

“I fear we cannot do right by Loki,” Thor said, “even if we do right by everyone else.” 

“You got that right.” 

Thor sighed. “I miss him.” 

Tony cleared his throat. He wasn’t good at feelings. Especially not complicated family issue feelings. Especially not Thor’s. 

“Can you understand, Stark?” Thor asked him. “Loki and I have known each other for hundreds and thousands of years. We have spent more time side-by-side than you have been alive, and to lose that—it is like I have lost part of myself. This is half of my life that I lost.” 

Tony couldn’t understand. He couldn’t even pretend to. He’d never known anyone for nearly that amount of time—hell, his parents had died when he was younger. And not only had Loki left, but now he actively hated Thor. And it sounded sudden, as if Thor went to sleep one day and when he woke up Loki considered him an enemy. And perhaps it wasn’t, perhaps Loki had been changing for years. But in the wake of a thousand year relationship, it must have seemed like only a moment. 

“I am sorry,” Thor said, pulling himself out of his own thoughts. “I did not mean to cast a shadow over this day. We will find Loki, and what comes to pass will pass.” 

Then he was gone, and Tony stood there feeling like he was slowly sinking into a hole beneath his feet. 

**

The pull of water was too strong. Tony tried to resist and instead found himself sucked beneath the waves and on his back, looking up through dark waters. 

A metal hand reached out and pulled him up to safety and suddenly, he was on the beach, gasping and soaking wet. 

The hand of his suit lay discarded next to him. 

“Your machine is quite fond of you,” said a man to Tony’s right. 

Tony turned. Loki was sitting in the sand, watching him. He was completely dry. 

Tony staggered to his feet and made his way to Loki. “What are you doing here?” 

Loki’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know.” 

“Did you just toss me in the water?” Tony asked. “Were you the one trying to drown me?” 

“No.” Loki looked towards the water. “That was not me.” 

“So you saw me drowning and didn’t try to help?” Tony asked. 

Loki looked up at him. “No.” 

“Why not?” 

“Where are we?” 

Tony glanced around. Palm trees lined the beach, and beyond them were low buildings. Beyond the buildings were rolling hills. “California,” he said. “Why?” 

Loki trailed his fingers in the sand, making little grooves. “Is this real, Tony Stark?” 

Tony frowned. “Of course it is. You’re here. I’m here.” 

“But why?” 

“I was just drowning, do you really expect me to know?” 

Loki’s mouth twitched. “Lately,” he said, “it is hard to tell where my mind ends and reality begins.” 

“Sounds like a problem,” Tony said. There was something he felt like he should be worried about, but for the moment it slipped from his mind like the sand from Loki’s fingers. 

Loki paid his comment no mind. “It is quiet,” he said. 

“It’s a beach,” Tony told him. But that wasn’t right. Beaches usually had people on them. Not Tony’s private beaches. But why would Loki be on Tony’s private beach?

The thing he should have been worried about came to him, slowly, like it was taking its time after being on a break. SHIELD wasn’t here. Neither were the Avengers. Loki was. Something was wrong with that. 

“Where’s my team?” Tony asked. 

The sound of waves grew louder. 

“No,” Loki said. 

Tony frowned. “No, what?” 

“The water,” Loki murmured. 

Tony turned and saw that the waves had gotten bigger. He turned back to Loki only to find that Loki had disappeared. 

“Shit,” he remarked. He turned back to the water just as a wave hit him. 

He shouldn’t have been surprised to wake up in his bed a few seconds later. 

**

Pepper returned from Washington D.C. the next day, and brought with her all the concerns of a week separated, compounded by her phone call with Tony. The first thing she asked, after they kissed and hugged and told each other how glad they were to see each other, was, “Isn’t there anything we can do to make sure Loki can’t override Jarvis?” 

“No idea,” Tony admitted. “Thor said he’d find Loki and deal with it but he’s also been absent for the most important part so.” He took Pepper’s hands in his. “Don’t worry. Okay, that’s stupid. You probably should worry. But not too much. We’ve got this.” 

“Really?” 

“Probably.” Tony smiled. “It has to count for something that he hasn’t killed us, right?” 

“Right.” Pepper pulled her hands out of his. “I don’t know if this is the right time to tell you this-“

“Always the right time,” Tony said. 

“But,” Pepper continued, “the President wants to see about installing arc reactor technology in the White House.”

“The President,” Tony repeated. 

“He wants to get in on clean energy,” Pepper said. 

“Right.” Tony sighed. “It’s got to be customized. The best. When does he want it done?”

“Soon as possible,” Pepper said. 

“I’m a little busy at the moment.” 

“I know.” 

“But it’s the President.” 

Pepper leaned forward and kissed Tony on the lips. “You’ll think of something.” 

“I will,” Tony agreed. “And you-“

“Pepper!” Tony groaned as Thor came into the room with his usual fanfare of loud exclamations and happiness. Pepper turned to him and grinned. 

“Good to see you,” she said, glancing at Tony. “I should probably leave you to your work.” 

“Don’t go,” Tony said. 

Pepper grinned at him, mischievously, and walked out of the room. Tony watched her leave.

“I have great news,” Thor said. 

Tony looked up at him. “What?” 

Thor held out a vial filled with a strangely bright-blue liquid. 

Tony stared at it. 

“This,” Thor told him, “is Dr. Banner’s solution to Loki’s magic. He told me to bring it to you!” 

“Oh!” Tony smiled tightly. “Good. That means we can capture him.” He took the vial and turned it around in his hands. He knew where to get a syringe, needles. He knew Bruce had more, and that he could now install the solution in his suit. 

“There is a problem,” Thor said. 

“There always is.” 

“How will you get close enough to use this on Loki?” 

“That’s a good question.” Tony pocketed the vial. “Do you want one? Because Bruce can show you how to use it.” 

“I should not,” Thor said. “Loki will avoid me.” 

“Right,” Tony said. 

“Whereas Loki has been open with you in the past,” Thor continued. 

“Uh-huh.” Tony folded his arms over his chest. 

“Banner and I agree that you would benefit the most from carrying this solution with you at all times. Loki is most likely to seek you out, as he has in the past, and then you can use it to capture him.” 

“I can’t do that,” Tony said, shocked at the words as they left his mouth. That was the plan, that was HIS plan, and he was shitting all over it. Still, his mouth kept going. “If we’re going to bind his magic I need to know what we’re doing with him afterwards. I hate to play a morals game with a guy who tried to take over the planet, but some things don’t sit well with me.” He gave Thor a pointed look. “Like torture. Or leaving someone to torture.” 

“I would have rescued Loki if I could,” Thor growled. “It was not my decision.” 

“Aren’t you king of Asgard?” Tony asked. “I mean, if Loki was then you definitely-“

“Not yet,” Thor cut him off. “There are reasons behind our actions. You would do well to remember that.” 

“Right.” Tony said. “Great. I can’t guarantee anything. He might not come back, or someone else might run into him first. But if you promise to play nice with Loki when he’s powerless, I’ll try my best.” He hadn’t even had any conditions for the capture of Loki five minutes ago. But now, apparently, conditions were a thing, and caring about Loki’s fate was also a thing. 

“He will not come to harm,” Thor said. 

Tony smiled even though he didn’t feel like it and walked out.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last one!

A chill filled the air. 

Tony sat up with a gasp, his breath clouding the air in front of him. That wasn’t supposed to happen. 

It took him a moment to figure out that he had fallen asleep in his workshop, on the desk. 

That didn’t explain why it was so cold. 

He looked around and saw that his workshop was empty. But it was bitter and freezing and he rubbed his hands on his arms to try and get some feeling into them. 

He turned back to his desk and felt the hairs of his neck rise. He turned back-

And nearly fell. Loki stood in front of him, holding a strange blue box. 

“Fuck you,” Tony said, more out of shock than anything. 

Loki made a strange movement with his hands and the box disappeared. 

“Thor told us that thing’s called the Casket of the Ancient Winters,” Tony said. “Belongs to the Frost Giants. Apparently you are one, and apparently Thor didn’t know you had it.” 

Loki’s hands were blue where they had held the box, lined with strange ridges, but the color was bleeding away into the more familiar pale white skin. 

Tony reached a hand into his pocket. The bracelet that summoned his suit was there, thankfully. 

“You were in my dream the other night,” Tony added, because the silence was starting to get unnerving. 

Loki’s eyes flickered. He took a step closer. “Yes,” he said. “I was.” 

“Or was I in yours?” Tony asked. 

“I could kill you right now,” Loki said, reaching out a thin hand to cup the side of Tony’s neck. It burned with how cold his skin was. “No one would be able to save you.” 

“Why don’t you?” Tony asked. 

Loki looked towards the door. “When last you disappeared, my mind became untethered,” he said, sounding like the words were being pulled from him in the most unpleasant way possible. “I was-“ he stopped. “The Other is a cruel master,” he managed. He looked at Tony, straight into his eyes and Tony saw pain, and it felt like a physical blow. “In my nightmares I am back in the cell, and they torture me. When I awake I can find you here, as I could in my dreams.” Loki exhaled. 

“You escaped,” Tony said. 

Loki gave him a sharp look. “Have I? Or is this simply my mind retreating?” 

“No,” Tony said. “I’m awake.” 

Loki stared at him, and then Jarvis interrupted with: “Sir, I have alerted the other team members. Do you need assistance?” 

“Not yet,” Tony said. Loki started to pull away but Tony pulled him closer. 

“My magic has returned to me,” Loki said, distracted, “and I can sense that I am awake, that you are real. Magic feels different in dreams. It does not work.” 

“I thought magic was the stuff of dreams,” Tony said. 

“No,” Loki shook his head. “Here, Stark Tower, is most familiar to me. There is residual energy from the Tesseract that my magic latches on to.” 

“Good to know,” Tony said. “That makes it weak, doesn’t it? Easier to come through from other places?”

Loki glanced at Tony. “Intelligence,” he said. “Such intelligence. Perhaps that is why I was drawn to your mind.” 

“Right.” Tony tried to move but Loki kept him in place. His other hand had found its way to Tony’s shoulder, pressing down. “So what now?”

“There is no plan,” Loki said, “only chaos.” 

“What does that mean?” Tony asked. 

“I wish to do as I please. You have been inside my mind. You have seen my reasoning. You alone can convince them to leave me be.” 

“You’re a threat,” Tony said. “I can’t guarantee anything.” 

Loki licked his lips. “I need to recover,” he said. “I cannot be in a cell again. Stark-“

“Is this you begging?” Tony asked. 

Loki’s eyes narrowed. “Do not push me.” 

“You’re desperate,” Tony said. “That’s why you’ve been doing all this—telling Clint about magic, confronting me without hurting me, not even bothering to go after Thor. You need help. And you don’t know how to get it.” 

Loki’s eyes flashed. “Stop,” he snarled. 

“No,” Tony said. “You’re here. You’ll hear me out. You want the help of some guy you only met once, who you threw out the window, and yeah, okay, you were tortured. I’m sorry. I don’t abide by that. But at the same time you’re dangerous. You made yourself an enemy of Earth and Asgard. You dug yourself into a hole and now you want help? Why should I help you? You’ve never shown me that I can trust you.” He took a deep breath. “I’ve seen you the most in dreams, and those aren’t reality.” 

“Where else shall I go?” Loki snarled. “What options have I left to me? Do you think I wanted to come here, for the great Man of Iron to be the only hope left to me? Do you think I wanted-“ He stopped.

“Wanted what?” Tony asked. “Come on, talk. It’s honesty hour.” 

“You relish my weakness, Stark,” Loki said. “I could offer you so much. You wish to know of magic? I could tell you such secrets. Your view of the universe would be forever changed. The world is but a shell now. I shall make it richer for you, and you will be able to see that world you wish to control, to contain. Your quest for knowledge will be advanced in ways you could not have possibly imagined. Is that not what you want?” 

It was. Tony admitted, that was part of why he had been curious about Loki in the first place. Loki was intelligent. Loki knew things he didn’t. Loki could offer him magic and knowledge that no one else could, and Tony could use that knowledge to protect the Earth, to help his friends, to protect Pepper. To better his own defenses. 

He could do so much. 

The bracelet in his pocket felt cold. 

Tony knew this struggle. Do what he wanted in the name of knowledge, or do what was right. Except the choices weren’t nearly as clear-cut. He didn’t know if there was a right choice here. 

But there was the choice he knew the Avengers needed him to make, versus the choice Loki needed him to make. 

“Loki,” he said, sticking one hand in his pocket and slipping on the bracelet, activating it, and grabbing Loki’s wrist with the other. His touch was soft, almost like a caress. Loki seemed to drink it in, to need it. Tony wondered how long it had been since anyone had touched Loki in any sort of gentle manner. “I want to take that deal. It sounds good, it really does. I want to trust you.” 

Loki’s expression hardened. “You can’t,” he said. 

“Would you, in my position?” Tony asked. 

“It matters not,” Loki snapped. 

“It does, actually. A lot,” Tony said, the words feeling bitter in his mouth. “Jarvis!” The arm of his suit came barreling towards them. Tony took his hand out of his pocket and thrust it out to the side, and the arm of his suit formed around it, clinging to his skin. 

Tony then activated the injection system he’d installed with Bruce and grabbed Loki with his armored hand. Bruce’s chemical compound was injected into Loki’s arm the moment Tony’s hand grabbed it. Loki gasped and tried to get away, but Tony held fast even after the injection was complete. 

“Jarvis,” Tony said, “call the others. SHIELD needs to pick up their prisoner.” 

Loki raised his head, teeth gritted in pain, to glare at Tony. In his eyes was pure anger, but Tony could see beyond that. Behind the anger was his betrayal. 

“I’m sorry,” Tony said, and found he meant it. 

Loki’s struggling had completely stopped, and he began to slip, knees giving out, to the ground. He started to look panicked. 

The door burst open, and the panic on Loki’s face was replaced with blankness. Tony watched as Natasha and Clint cuffed him and dragged him away, and he tried not to think about the way Loki had trusted him. 

Tony convinced himself there was no better option. 

**

“What is Tony Stark to you?” Natasha asked. She sat across from Loki’s cell. The prisoner hadn’t slept much in the past few days, nor had he eaten. He had spent the first few hours in his cell clawing at his wrists until blood ran down his arm, attempting to remove his handcuffs. He clawed less now, the action more unconscious than anything. 

SHIELD agents came in every few hours to inject him with Bruce’s chemicals, which worked well to suppress his magic until Bruce could find a way to steadily deliver the suppressant into Loki’s bloodstream. 

When Loki did fall asleep, he woke up screaming. Natasha knew this because it was on SHIELD’s cameras, and in Fury’s reports. 

Thor had tried to visit, but Fury insisted that he take a step back and let SHIELD deal with it. Perhaps when Loki was more stable, Thor could visit. But Loki would not be going back to Asgard. Asgard had proved they couldn’t be responsible for their prisoner. Thor had taken this badly, and had gone to Jane Foster to calm down. 

Natasha had asked, once, if Tony had wanted to keep up with Loki’s condition, to visit him. She had noticed how Loki seemed drawn to Tony, how Tony hadn’t been surprised or disturbed by it, and it made her wonder. But Tony refused to have anything to do with Loki and locked himself in his workshop, only emerging for food, Bruce, or Pepper. 

She knew he’d come out of whatever funk he was in sooner or later. Maybe it was guilt. Guilt could do that. She knew Stark wasn’t good with emotions and she couldn’t blame him for feeling guilty about Loki, even if she didn’t agree with him. So she worked from Loki’s end instead, because it was important. Because they wanted to make sure Stark wasn’t compromised, or secretly a threat, or being threatened by something else Loki knew about and they didn’t. 

Loki glanced up at Natasha and then past her. 

“Wake up,” he said. 

“You are awake,” Natasha told him. 

Loki shivered. “The Other is cruel. One must escape into the mind.” 

“Who is the Other?” Natasha asked. Tony said that Loki had mentioned this name in conjunction with the Chitauri, along with Thanos. She assumed both of them were leaders of the Chitauri. 

Loki didn’t respond. 

Natasha asked, “Who is Tony Stark, to you?” 

“Tony Stark is nothing to me,” Loki snapped. 

“Why did you go after him?” Natasha asked. 

“He left.”

Natasha sighed. “What do you mean? Left from where?” 

Loki closed his eyes. “I want to rest.” 

“Fury says you don’t sleep.” 

“Sleep,” Loki snapped, “is not rest. Sleep is the void.” 

“The void,” Natasha repeated. 

“The void is not nothing,” Loki continued, voice hollow. “I thought the void was nothing. I thought I could escape. The void is too full.” 

Natasha felt herself grow chilled. “What’s in the void?” 

“Monsters,” Loki said. 

“When were you in the void?” Natasha asked. 

Loki remained silent. 

“Is that how you came here, the first time?” Natasha asked. 

“Perhaps,” Loki said. 

Natasha sighed. “Why did you go after Tony?” 

Loki shook his head, as if trying to dislodge something annoying. Natasha stood up. “We’ll continue another time.” 

“I remember him tossing me into an abyss,” Loki said. 

Natasha paused. She wanted to ask: who? But Loki had turned his attention to his handcuffs, digging at the skin around them and drawing blood. 

Instead, she turned and left Loki to what remained of his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. As you may have guessed, I don't tend to go for happy endings.


End file.
